You know when you have a really great idea in your head for a knitted project, and then you spend AGES on it and it doesn’t work out too well? That's what my green jacket thing is doing to me right now.
It’s amazing how long it takes to knit a sleeve. I’m still on the first one of my secret project, but at least I’m an inch or so from the end. I’m going to try putting a row in between each bit of joined i-cord because my other attempt came out a bit tight. The bad thing though about sleeves is that I’m about to do it all over again!
So, almost two years between posts… At least there is a lot I can tell you about! In a nutshell, there are a lot of finished projects, started projects and hibernating ones.
This is me blogging again after quite a holiday. Although I’ve still been knitting throughout, we had a double bereavement (my uncle and my horse), which was tough. But I'm back and (hopefully if it works!) blogging to you from my new Blackberry! I love new gadgets! Talking of new, for my birthday I was bought a “knitpro symphonie” starter set and I love it to bits! For Christmas I'm going to be asking for lots of the expansion sets! I've got a whirlwind of finished objects to share, like this little item:
but more about that next time!
I'd lastly like to thank Josiekitten and SnoopyDog for the lovely comments on my last post, and congratulations to Josiekitten for having her blog featured in Yarn Forward Magazine!
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone from Virgin Media
Well here it is, my mum’s Jacket all knitted and sewn up! It’s just missing the zip which my mum has offered to do on the sewing machine, since I’m “sew” bad at it! She’s using the tutorial on the Pickin' and Throwin' Blog, which includes both hand and machine sewing techniques.
This is the front, Sorry for the blurry image! It’s not meant to be yellow, thats just the way it looks because of the lighting in here. If it helps, the background is meant to be white! The front is pinned together at the moment from lack of zip.
This is the back, note the hood! First time I've knitted a hood and boy was this a strange method! I had to cast off either side, and then knit a middle bit, and then sew it all together afterward! That answered my questions about why I had to pick stitches up for the border – the stitches were picked up from an assortment of side and cast off stitches. I guess you could say how much I now appreciate the value of a short-row hood!
The Pattern: Stylecraft Life Aran 8259
Yarn: Hayfield Bonus Aran from Kemps Wool Shop
Needles needed: 1 pair 4mm straights, 1 pair 5mm straights (although i used circulars for comfort’s sake)
This is just a quick one to let you all know that I’ve not dropped off the face of the planet, and that I’ve now finished the back of my mum’s cardy/jacket thingy and I’ve picked up for the hood and knitted about an inch! Hoping it’ll speed along as it’s just stockinette stitch. Strangely I have to cast it off and then pick up these same stitches for the border, I can’t quite work out why. If someone could enlighten me on that point I’d be delighted! Can’t upload pictures again and this time it doesn’t seem to be a size problem, otherwise I’d impress you all with my very neat and almost invisible seaming!
Remember me telling you about the Cardigan/jacket that i was knitting for my Mum? Well, I give you the Left Front!
I cast on the two sleeves together using the side-by-side method, not the fancy one behind/inside the other technique that you can use for socks. I should have done this for the fronts too – hindsight can be a wonderful thing! I’m about half way done with the sleeves – another set of increases to go which takes me up to the elbow, and then it’s just back and forth for a while without having to worry! I’m beginning to think it may have been a bad idea to knit this in pieces as my experience with Kaiden’s jumper (read about that here, here and here) is coming back to haunt me!
The pattern is relatively simple - a diamond with moss stitch inner, and bobbles at each end which I’ve memorised already.
After the sleeves, and not including the mountain of sewing I’ll have to do, I still need to cast on for the back, right front, and hood (which is picked up from the back and fronts, rather than cast on). I keep telling myself it won’t take long at all, but I think I might be wrong!
Firstly I’d like to thank everyone who visited my blog last Monday, and it was lovely to read the comments that were left. I had such awful thoughts that nobody would read this and I would be blogging to myself! I hope everyone comes back to read this weeks episode and that I can keep you all entertained a bit longer. I’m really intending for this to be a weekly blog, and so I will try and post on a monday to keep it regular.
Over the past week, I’ve finished two items - the baby jacket I was struggling to sew up, and also a very cute heart-shaped key ring. I have to admit defeat on the sewing up front however, my mother kindly offered to do all my sewing for me, which was a great weight off my shoulders!
The jacket I knitted from James C. Brett “Baby Shimmer” (as I did with the rest of the set from this pattern) and although it’s turned out lovely I do think the yarn is maybe a little too rough (even after washing) for next-to-skin usage. Although I’ve knit with acrylic yarns before, this was by far the roughest and I don't think I’d knit this pattern with this yarn again, maybe saving it for household items such as hot-water bottle covers and tea cosies.
The pattern called for two borders (one with button holes) and a collar that were all knit from stitches picked up along the side of the two front sections, but I found it difficult to pick up enough stitches evenly without it looking a complete mess. So I cheated!
The two borders were simple enough; I just cast on the required stitches and knit an extra row which would be used for seaming. The collar required a bit more thinking. The pattern asked for 22 stitches to be picked up along the neck on one side, then the live stitches on the stitch holder were to be slipped onto the needle and then another 22 stitches picked up on the other side. What I ACTUALLY did was cast on and knit 22 stitches, then slip onto the same needle the live stitches from the stitch holder, then cast on the remaining 22 stitches and knit them onto the needle holding the rest of the stitches. I broke the yarn and used a knitted-in join to knit the pieces together on the next row. So what I had at the end of this was two flaps of collar with an extra row to seam to the respective sides, but no extra rows in the middle, so it all evened out in the end!
My other FO is intended as a birthday present for a friend. I found a pattern for little stuffed hearts at http://mochimochiland.com/weblog/2007/02/free-pattern-hearts/ and I had some lovely pinky-purpley-blue eyelash yarn leftover from a project I finished many years ago. Unfortunately I’ve lost the ball bands for the yarn so I’ve no idea about its details. The heart was stuffed with leftover yarn ends from seaming my other projects, which makes an ideal stuffing for little objects such as this. When I (meaning my mother) sewed it up, the key ring chain was sewn into the seam to make it a little more secure. The whole thing must have taken me about an hour and a half, and it makes a lovely little present to give to someone without having to spend loads of money, which is great considering we’re all counting our pennies at the moment.
I started another part of the set that goes with the jacket; it’s a little hat with a pompom on top. I haven’t made pompoms since I was in Brownie Guides, (many years ago!) so it will be quite a re-adventure for me, after the yards and yards of 2x2 ribbing I feel like I’ve already completed! Just the mittens and bootees to go, although I think it’s very probable I’ll run out of yarn before I complete those. The yarn I bought must have different yardage per ball than the one that the pattern recommends because I definitely bought the recommended amount in grams, and there’s not that much variation in my tension. It’s just a shame really as the balls I bought were on sale for 89p per 100g and I doubt I’ll get more for that price if I go back!
In other news, there is a fibre event happening in Chester at the end of this month, and I shall be attending (although I've not a clue where it is!). I've already arranged for a babysitter for my horse and I fully intend on having a good day out wool shopping, and then possibly venturing into chester itself. From what I've been told, one of my favourite online yarn shops http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/ will have a stall there, and the whole event is apparently hosted by http://www.bluefaced.com, although as hard as I look, i can't find anything about it on their website! I will post any other information as i find it incase it is of interest for anybody.
knitted a hood and boy was this a strange method! I had to cast off either side, and then knit a middle bit, and then sew it all together afterward! That answered my questions about why I had to pick stitches up for the border – the stitches were picked up from an assortment of side and cast off stitches. I guess you could say how much I now appreciate the value of a short-row hood!
The two borders were simple enough; I just cast on the required stitches and knit an extra row which would be used for seaming. The collar required a bit more thinking. The pattern asked for 22 stitches to be picked up along the neck on one side, then the live stitches on the stitch holder were to be slipped onto the needle and then another 22 stitches picked up on the other side. What I ACTUALLY did was cast on and knit 22 stitches, then slip onto the same needle the live stitches from the stitch holder, the
n cast on the remaining 22 stitches and knit them onto the needle holding the rest of the stitches. I broke the yarn and used a knitted-in join to knit the pieces together on the next row. So what I had at the end of this was two flaps of collar with an extra row to seam to the respective sides, but no extra rows in the middle, so it all evened out in the end!
